UK COM­PLETES SO­LAR PROBE

This Septem­ber, the Euro­pean Space Agency’s So­lar Or­biter left the Air­bus fac­tory in Steve­nage, UK where it was built. It is now head­ing for an ESA test­ing fa­cil­ity in Ger­many. The probe, due to launch in Fe­bru­ary 2020, will or­bit the Sun once ev­ery five months, ex­am­in­ing its mag­netic field and so­lar wind. The Or­biter’s ob­ser­va­tions will help as­tronomers in­ter­pret the Sun’s in­ner work­ings, and un­der­stand why its mag­netic poles flip once ev­ery 11 years.